I5KITISII FOKKST TK 1 191 



natural reproduction of the principal species ; by these 

 means the finest old oak timber of two hundred to two 

 hundred and forty years of age can often be produ< 



The reproductive capacity of the oak can be readily 

 judged of by its ability to develop dormant buds along the 

 stem on being suddenly isolated after growing long in close 

 canopy, or on being coppiced, or pollarded. The power 

 of shooting from the stool is greatest when the bank is thin 

 and smooth ; it diminishes sooner on sandy soils, or those 

 liable to inundation, than on powerful soils, even when the 

 latter may be somewhat wanting in depth. Recent experi- 

 ments at Nancy have shown that the power of throwing out 

 shoots from the stool is retained up till the sixtieth, and 

 even till the eighty-fifth year of age. 



Liability to Suffer from External Dangers. Thanks to 

 its strong root-system, the oak suffers little from the violence 

 of storms. Of physical dangers that from frost is greatest, 

 but the oak is less exposed in this respect than the beech, 

 as it does not break into foliage until about a fortnight later, 

 and has also a stronger recuperative power ; situations known 

 to be subject to frost are, however, hardly the most suit- 

 able localities for the growth of oak. 



Selby, evidently borrowing from Loudon, mentions in 

 regard to the oak : 



"The extraordinary number of insects that are wholly or partially 

 supported by it, amounting it is supposed, to nearly 2,000 species, 

 1,500 of which may be considered to be phytophagous, or actual feeders 

 upon some portion of the tree, the remainder as parasites attached to 

 these, and belonging to the ichneumonidae, and other parasitic tribes." 



Leunis, 1 with more circumstantial detail, gives the number 

 of animals and plants living on the oak as " 500 insects, 36 

 fungi, 1 6 hanging mosses, 7 leaf-mosses, and 3 liverworts 



1 Leunis, Synopsis der Fftanzcnkundc, 1877, p. 1017. 



